By
Katherine H Marques
The recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Act) contains a largely unnoticed provision worth the attention of human resources professionals and legal counsel who draft and implement settlement agreements and releases of employee claims. Under the Act, the new Internal Revenue Code Section 162(q) – which took effect on Dec. 22, 2017 – now expressly denies taxpayers the ...

By The Associated Press
Jan. 24, 2018
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's second health secretary won Senate approval Wednesday. Alex Azar will take over a sprawling department shaken by his predecessor's early exit.
The GOP-majority Senate voted 55-43, largely along party lines, to confirm the former drug company and government executive to join the Trump Cabinet.
A ...

December 07, 2017 | News and Events | bryce | Comments Off on Health Law Sign-Ups Seen as Falling Short Though More Enroll

By THE Associated Press | Dec. 6, 2017, 3:27 P.M. E.S.T.
WASHINGTON — Americans are signing up in growing numbers for the Affordable Care Act's subsidized health insurance, the government said Wednesday. But with enrollment season cut in half and just over a week to go, experts say the final tally will likely fall short.
About 3.6 million people signed ...

BY Benjy Egel, Anita Chabria, and Ellen Garrison
begel@sacbee.com | DECEMBER 05, 2017 10:46 AM
Hands chopped off bodies; corpses left to deteriorate; doctors pressured to classify officer-involved deaths as accidents rather than homicides: San Joaquin County’s two forensic pathologists resigned in recent days over what they said was intolerable interference by Sheriff-Coroner Steve Moore.
Dr. Bennet Omalu Tuesday announced his resignation as San Joaquin County’s chief medical examiner. Last week, ...

December 01, 2017 | News and Events | bryce | Comments Off on Health nominee Azar is no stranger to management controversy

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alex Azar, who’s in line to replace a Trump Cabinet secretary who was forced out in controversy, is no stranger to sticky management problems.
In Washington, he’s been nominated to replace Tom Price, who resigned in September over questions about his use of private jets. Back in Indiana, Azar was an influential member of a public airport board, tasked with oversight of human resources ...

November 30, 2017 | News and Events | bryce | Comments Off on Trump Health secretary nominee, a former pharmaceutical executive, pledges to take on high drug prices

By: Noam N. Levey | Contact Reporter
Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical executive tapped by President Trump to be Health and Human Services secretary, told senators Wednesday that making prescription drugs more affordable would be one of his top priorities.
“Drug prices are too high,” Azar told the Senate health committee, pledging to look at ways to increase competition and stop drugmakers from gaming the system. ...

October 13, 2017 | Legal Updates | bryce | Comments Off on White House Says It Will End Key Obamacare Subsidies to Insurers

by PHIL HELSEL, ALEX JOHNSON and BENJY SARLIN
The White House announced late Thursday that it would no longer reimburse insurers for lowering costs for customers under the Affordable Care Act, a decision Democrats condemned as "spiteful."
President Donald Trump had indicated he was considering cutting off the payments in order to increase pressure on lawmakers to repeal the ACA, also known ...